Details of December of Halo 5 Update Emerge

Video game developer 343 Industries has a massive update coming to the latest installment of Microsoft’s best-selling Halo franchise. Workers at the developer discuss some of the changes players can expect in the next major Halo 5 update in a new video available on YouTube.

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343 Industries talked more about a future Halo 5 update in a livestream late last week. Halo 5: Guardians launched exclusively for the Xbox One in late October. Before launch, the studio made it clear that it planned to support Halo 5 with updates and new content on a regular basis, promising an experience more like having a subscription to a service than a game with just a few title updates that users have to pay for. This new Halo 5 December update will be the second major update that the studio has released for the game thus far.

The downloadable add-ons discussed in the video include a Mark IV helmet that Master Chief John 117 wears in his many appearances outside of the Halo games and experiences. Really, it’s a throw back to the original Halo: Combat Evolved game for the Xbox One. Hosts of 343 livestream spend a lot of time discussing the armor and weapons skins that users can expect to come to the game soon too. These weapon skins and armor are all inspired by the Halo Championship that 343 Industries is sponsoring for professional players. In the video is the discussion of the rocket launcher, called the M41 SSR. The tease of the Mark IV helmet doesn’t come until the end of the video.

The video starts with talk about the physical Spartan characters that players of the game can order from a 3D printing company. These are the same physical characters that Microsoft, discusses in a recent post on Xbox Wire. The figures cost between $29.99 and $89.99 and come with a REQ Pack that can be used in Halo 5: Guardians’ Warzone multiplayer experience.

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Also included in the Halo 5 December Update should be the often missed Forge Mode. In previous games Forge Mode had tools that let users create their own Halo multiplayer modes just like the developers do. The tools often led to the creation of some very cool, but unorthodox online experiences. For example, there’s Giffball, which is basically a game of soccer played with Gravity Hammers and exploding goals. 343 has maintained since October that Forge Mode would launch as a free Halo 5 update in December of this year.

343 Industries and Microsoft shocked everyone when they revealed that Halo 5: Guardians would have no paid content updates. Instead of selling themed packs of maps and story extras, 343 Industries settled on an ever-evolving multiplayer experience. Halo 5: Guardians players can expect new maps and features for the game on a regular basis, all coming without a cover charge. Instead of playing for downloadable maps, players have the option to pay for REQ card bundles that unlock weapons in Warzone multiplayer. To be clear, Halo 5 players can use the REQ points they earn in Warzone multiplayer to purchase weapons upgrades too.

Halo 5: Guardians is available through the Xbox Store and retail stores like GameStop now. A basic copy of the game costs $59.99. Microsoft also has a 1TB Xbox One Limited Edition Halo 5: Guardians Bundle that includes a digital copy of the game for $499.99. Shoppers at GameStop get to choose a free game to go with their Xbox One purchase this week. Among the many options available is Halo 5: Guardians.

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343 Industries hasn’t said exactly what day the December Halo 5 Update will launch, nor revealed how much hard drive space adding Forge to the game will require.